Meesho, a social commerce startup, based out of Bengaluru, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from social media juggernaut Facebook, cited ET.
According to the company, the funds will help in its efforts to enable independent entrepreneurs to build businesses and grow their customer base via social channels.
“Meesho stood out from its peers in certain aspects. Firstly, the two founders had the right framework in terms of business building. They were bringing a lot of passion and problem-solving and testing and learning approaches that we as a company like,” Ajit Mohan, managing director of Facebook India said.
Meesho was founded by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015. It is a mobile-first ecommerce platform for resellers such as housewives who then use channels such as WhatsApp and social media platforms Facebook and Instagram to promote products within their social circles.
It facilitates a three-way marketplace enabling resellers, SMBs, and micro-entrepreneurs across India to connect with potential buyers using social media. The company claims to have more than 15,000 suppliers and 2 million resellers across India.
Whereas, Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service company, based out of California. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, along with other fellow students of Harvard College.
People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.
Mohan further said that the investment was with an eye on the impact of Meesho and not of transaction. “Facebook is looking to guide Meesho founders in terms of support they want to fuel this entrepreneurship model and they will see if there are opportunities for them to do things together,” he said.
While, according to Statista, over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online by 2021. With more than 500 million Indians relying on the Internet for their day-to-day life, shopping online has become an inherent choice.
Earlier, Meesho has raised $65.2 million from investors such as Sequoia India, Shunwei Capital and DST Partners.